7 Fitness Tips from Celebrity Trainer Seven

November 06, 2008

Workoutsweek2 It never fails: Every winter, I OD on Halloween candy and ditch the gym for holiday parties. It's not healthy and it's not pretty.

This time, I'm determined to look great at the gazillion holiday cocktail shindigs. To help me get on the right track, I asked Seven, a Miami based Bally Total Fitness and celebrity trainer for her tips:

Q. What's a typical session for your female clients?
A. We start with 30 minutes of intense cardio as a warm up, and then move to weight lifting. For women, doing cardio first is a must--it gives you lean, defined muscles. I finish each workout with ten minutes of yoga.

Q. Do you change it up before a client's red carpet event?
A. I add ten minutes to her cardio and more workout days to the week leading up to an event. We also focus on muscle groups depending on the style of her dress. If she's wearing strapless, we work on defining her shoulders, and if she's wearing backless, we do extra back exercises.

Q. What activities do you recommend on the "off" days?
A. Do what you love: Yoga, kickboxing, jogging, or even just a walk in the park with your dog. Anything that keeps your muscles moving.

Q. What's your best move for abs?
A. Lie on your back, raise your arms and your legs up to the ceiling (so you look like a 'U' shape from the side. Keep your chin up to the ceiling at all times. Exhale and reach your fingers up to your toes, counting from 25 to 1, inhale on your way down. In the same position, reach toward your left toe and then alternate to your right, counting from 25 to one in each direction. Do three to four sets of each every day.

Q. Best butt move?
A. An old school squat gives the fastest results. Stand at the bottom of your staircase with your feet hip-width apart. "Fake sit"—just a booty tap—on the second-to-last step, then stand up. Do 20 reps and at least four sets.

Q. Your best tip ever?
A. Get a calendar and mark huge red X's on workout days. This makes reality set in faster than you think, because you have the bad days staring you in the face. Reality can be the best motivator.

Q. How do you motivate your lazy clients?
A. I tell them to suck it up! I remind them of their goals and why they're here to see me. They're always grateful at the end of a workout.

Thanks, Seven! I might have to come down to Miami soon so you can kick my butt into shape this winter.

www.allure.com

5 Weight-Loss Tips You've Never Heard Before

May 08, 2009

I can't resist ordering pad Thai on Friday nights when I'm not going out and too lazy to cook. It doesn't do wonders for my diet. But I discovered a genius new trick to avoid pigging out: Divvy up the takeout in half and shove the rest in the freezer, right away, to avoid temptation. Allure's Cheater's Diet, online here and in our May issue, has other great tips—these are the ones I'm swearing by.

* Avoid snacking when you get home from work by distracting yourself for at least 15 minutes. As if you needed an excuse to hop on Facebook.

* Instead of guzzling several high-cal drinks when you're out for a cocktail, order one strong drink with hardly any mixer that you'll nurse all night long. (Like a tequila with a splash of orange juice. That has about 100 calories, versus a few frozen margs at about 250 calories a pop).

* Eat before you overeat. If you've been banking calories all day long, saving up for dinner out, you could go gangbusters. Have a snack (try to keep it under 200 calories) like string cheese, a non-fat yogurt, or a soup, and you'll eat less at dinner.

* Sleep enough. Getting fewer than seven hours of sleep over several nights causes your cortisol, a stress and appetite-inducing hormone, to jump. Cut caffeine after 2:30, and avoid booze within three hours of bedtime.

PHOTO: NICOLAS MOORE